Mark Lytle of Arizona Oath Keepers Posts Strong LTE

Green Valley/Sahuarita Oath Keepers leader Mark Lytle has a good article in a local newspaper which we’d like to share with all readers here at national. Mark sets a strong example of the caliber of Oath Keepers’ membership and honors the tradition of Oath Keepers’ highest standards. Well done, Mark.

The following LTE was published in the Green Valley News. Please give ’em some clicks, yes? Thank you.

IN MY VIEW: Get involved, or explain why you won’t

by Mark Lytle

As a leader for a local chapter of Oath Keepers, I have the opportunity to engage in conversations with complete strangers who inquire about our organization. Generally, I am approached by the more conservative crowd, because many I have met on the left have a preconceived notion that at any moment I may fly off the handle and begin committing hate crimes, or worse, the dreaded “thought crimes.”

Sadly, this is what discussion of ideas has boiled down to in this country. A talking head from the media, a politician, or 501(c3) organization will deliver an opinion, and suddenly the engines of group-think are fired up, and no discussion transpires. The only thing that is left to decide is how loud the “shouting down” by the thought police should be.

Yet many people are surprised to find out that I have served my country and community for over 20 years and that I have developed great disdain for the Republican/Democrat dichotomy. I am against many of our train wreck foreign and domestic policies from our current and previous administrations. I am an ardent supporter of EVERY amendment in the Bill of Rights. I am against corporate welfare/bailouts/”too big to fail” policies, and I am Jewish.

This generally results in an audible sizzling of their circuit board, because many have been programed to accept ALL of the conservative argument, or ALL of the liberal argument. After all, it is an apostasy in our controlled speech environment to speak out against corporate corruption as a “conservative” or carry a concealed firearm if you are “liberal.”

Often times, the person I am speaking with say the things my organization represents makes sense, and then I hear it: “But I don’t want to get on some list”. This mysterious “list” hearkens back to images of WWII Germany, with jack-booted thugs rounding up Jews, gypsies, ethnic minorities, political enemies, homosexuals and those deemed genetically defective.

If you are concerned that you are going to be persecuted by tyrannical thugs because you exercise your constitutionally protected rights, it should be the bugle call that causes you to stand up and become involved in changing things.

I came to the conclusion that list or no list, I could no longer sit by and watch our nation continue down this path of destruction. This is not an issue of right vs. left, but an issue of maintaining complete control of the citizenry. It was a matter of sowing as much political, racial and religious tension as possible so we are too busy fighting each other and are kept blinded to the rape of our country by many politicians who have been bought and paid for to represent some nefarious interest.

I thought about what I would tell my children when they asked me what I did to stop the destruction of their civil liberties. Would I tell them that I remained silent because I didn’t want to risk losing a government pension, or would I tell them that I did everything I possibly could to prevent our leaders from driving our nation off a cliff? Would I have to tell them that during my time it was actually acceptable to have a different opinion, and furthermore express that opinion without being tarred, feathered and persecuted for a “thought crime”?

I decided that I would not be intimidated by fears of being put on a list. I would not be fearful of being tarred, feathered and hung out for public display for expressing a counter viewpoint. I would not participate in the left/right, Democrat/ Republican, gay/straight, Christian/Jewish, black/white, terrorism/war dichotomy any longer. I owe it to my my children to stand up and defend their rights, regardless of being personally attacked. At the end of the day, no matter what happens, I can look them dead in the eye and tell them that I did all I could to ensure they could grow up in a truly free nation.

To hell with intimidation and “lists.” Turn off the television, stand up, speak out, and get involved. If you don’t, be ready to explain to your children that your fantasy football bracket, or obsession with your Facebook friend accumulation was more of a priority than ensuring they inherited free and stable nation.

Mark Lytle is chapter president for Green Valley/Sahuarita Oath Keepers. Oath Keepers is a non-partisan association of military, veterans, police, and first responders, who pledge to “defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Meeting info: www.meetup.com/Tucson-Oath-Keepers/

"A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The ''United States of America'', for an amount of ''up to and including his life.''" – Author Unknown"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." – Thomas Paine"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine

Veterans, you swore an Oath...

Oath of Enlistment

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

Officers Oath

I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

Site Dedication

This site is dedicated to the memory of John William Adams (1925-2006), Marine and Oath Keeper extraordinaire.

John Adams, at the age of 16, lied about his age to join the Marines so he could fight against Imperial Japan in the Pacific. His enlistment date was December 10, 1941, just three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor (see below). As a Marine rifleman, he fought the Japanese from island to island, across the pacific, including at Iwo Jima. We may have good men, but we never had better.

Until his death in 2006, he was a dedicated patriot who still took his oath to defend the Republic deadly serious. May God grant you the courage to do likewise.

Stewart is the founder and Director of Oath Keepers. He served as a U.S. Army paratrooper until disabled in a rough terrain parachuting accident during a night jump.

He is a former firearms instructor and former member of Rep. Ron Paul’s DC staff.

Stewart previously wrote the monthly Enemy at the Gates column for S.W.A.T. Magazine

Stewart graduated from Yale Law School in 2004, where his paper “Solving the Puzzle of Enemy Combatant Status” won Yale’s Miller prize for best paper on the Bill of Rights. He assisted teaching U.S. military history at Yale, was a Yale Research Scholar, and is writing a book on the dangers of applying the laws of war to the American people.